Campaign Highlights

What follows is an overview of PETA’s campaign against KFC. For more information, please see our full campaign timeline, complete with links to letters and other documents.

Campaign Background
From April 2001 until January 2003, PETA attempted to work with KFC to address chicken welfare. KFC pledged to “raise the bar” on chicken welfare and hired four of PETA’s five suggested animal welfare scientists as advisors. However, as of January 2003, and after multiple urgent letters from PETA demanding some positive action, KFC had still done nothing whatsoever to improve life for even a single one of the 850 million animals it slaughters annually. On January 6, 2003, PETA called for an international boycott of KFC.

Celebrity Support
From Baywatch alumna Pamela Anderson to world spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, high-profile people from all walks of life have endorsed PETA’s campaign against KFC in a variety of ways—including Sir Paul McCartney, who ran an open letter to the CEO of Yum! Brands in KFC’s hometown newspaper. Check out the full list of notables who have been active in PETA’s campaign against KFC.

Undercover Investigations
Time and again, PETA and other groups have gone undercover at KFC supplier farms and slaughterhouses, in locales ranging from India to Europe to the U.S. And time and again, investigators have turned up routine abuses of chickens that would disgust any decent person. From feeding animals so many drugs that they couldn’t walk on a German farm to conditions so bad on a KFC supplier farm in England that the Sunday Mirror headline screamed, “Dead and Dying in a Cramped Shed, Nobody Does Chicken Like KFC”. About a KFC supplier in West Virginia, Dan Rather spoke for millions of Americans when he said, “[T]here’s no mistaking what it depicts—cruelty to animals raised for a fast-food chain.” See for yourself what all our investigations have revealed.

Demonstrations and Protests
Since the launch of the campaign, PETA activists have staged thousands of demonstrations around the world, including weekly protests at KFC headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky; the arrest of Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and PETA President Ingrid Newkirk while protesting a KFC restaurant in Paris; and the dousing of Yum! Brands CEO David Novak with fake blood and chicken feathers by an unidentified activist in Germany. Activists have also protested in front of KFC dressed as chickens on crutches and in wheelchairs, Grim Reapers, sexy “Commando Chicks,” and an evil Col. Sanders.

Animal Welfare Council Composition
Although KFC did hire four excellent people as advisors in the summer of 2001 (Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University, Dr. Ian Duncan of the University of Guelph, Dr. Joy Mench of the University of California-Davis, and Adele Douglass of Humane Farmed Animal Care), it has also hired representatives of the chicken industry, and it did not follow the science-based guidelines developed by its own advisors—in fact, the panel rarely met, and when it did, KFC did not allow it to accomplish anything at all to eliminate the worst abuses of chickens. In the summer of 2003, Dr. Mench and Ms. Douglass resigned from the council, and in the spring of 2005, Drs. Grandin and Duncan did the same.

Jason Alexander’s Support
In January 2003, PETA wrote to ex-Seinfeld funny man Jason Alexander, KFC’s spokesperson, asking him to help persuade KFC to make improvements in chicken welfare. A few months later, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk met with Mr. Alexander, who was horrified by what KFC was doing to chickens, declared himself PETA’s ally, and brokered a meeting between PETA and KFC President Cheryl Bachelder. In June 2003, Mr. Alexander was dropped as a KFC spokesperson, just weeks after lobbying KFC to make PETA’s recommended animal welfare improvements. Although KFC claims that it was not retaliation, KFC had told the media in April 2003 that Mr. Alexander would be signed for another year.

Negotiations With KFC President Cheryl Bachelder
As a result of Mr. Alexander’s efforts, in May 2003, KFC President Cheryl Bachelder flew to Norfolk, Virginia, to meet with PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. Ms. Bachelder seemed to be deeply moved by what happens to chickens on factory farms and at slaughter and pledged to make significant changes and to work for movement on all of PETA’s recommendations. Read a full synopsis of the meeting.

Unfortunately, KFC reneged on Ms. Bachelder’s promises, and soon after, Ms. Bachelder left KFC. PETA believes that she resigned because of her objections to KFC’s cruel treatment of chickens. When asked, Ms. Bachelder is polite but explains that she cannot divulge the reasons for her departure.

Consumer Fraud Lawsuit
In July 2003, PETA filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court accusing KFC of false advertising, based on false information disseminated through the company’s Web site, telephone hotline, and news releases. In September, KFC capitulated and agreed to change the overt lies on its Web site and customer-service hotline. Unfortunately, it did not agree to improve chicken welfare.

Shareholder Proposal
For Yum! Brands’ 2004 annual meeting, PETA filed a shareholder proposal asking the company to prepare a report explaining how it is meeting its stated goal “to only deal with suppliers who provide an environment that is free from cruelty, abuse and neglect.” The proposal was included in Yum!’s proxy statement, mailed to all shareholders, and voted on at the company’s 2004 annual meeting. Despite the fact that the proposal simply asked KFC for a detailed justification of its own statement, the company opposed the proposal. The proposal received 8.6 percent of the votes—well in excess of the required percentage to remain on the ballot and more than any other proposal (including proposals related to smoke-free restaurants and workers’ rights) and a huge percentage, considering that all company-owned and unvoted shares are counted as “no” votes.

Secret Negotiations
In February 2005, PETA held several meetings with top KFC executives, including Chief Operating Officer Harvey Brownlee and General Counsel Scott Toop, over the course of six weeks. In exchange for a moratorium on PETA’s campaign, KFC agreed to solicit advice from a panel of five scientific animal welfare experts, all of whom completely endorsed PETA’s recommended program. After continued back-and-forth, during which KFC officials refused to make a single pledge to meaningfully implement even a single one of their own experts’ recommendations, PETA’s campaign resumed. Read a complete review of the negotiations.

Canadian False-Advertising Complaint
On April 21, 2005, a coalition of animal welfare groups and advocates filed a “six-person complaint” accusing KFC Canada of misleading the public about its animal welfare policies. The cosigners included environmental scientist David Suzuki, named one of the “Ten Greatest Canadians” by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Farley Mowat, author of Sea of Slaughter and Woman in the Mist, known as “Canada’s most widely read author”; renowned environmental activist Elizabeth May; and representatives of animal protection groups from across Canada. Rather than address the complaint, KFC Canada’s CEO wrote a sleazy letter to PETA supporter and native Canadian Pamela Anderson, sparking an international media frenzy.

Humane Organizations Unite Against KFC!
As KFC continues to refuse to eliminate the worst abuses suffered by the 850 million birds slaughtered for its restaurants each year, humane organizations worldwide are flocking together to demand that KFC adopt PETA’s recommendations—which are the very recommendations made by members of KFC’s own animal welfare board. Joining PETA in its campaign against KFC are The Humane Society of the United States, United Poultry Concerns, Animal Rights International, Compassion Over Killing, Vegan Outreach, the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, the Animal Welfare Trust, Farm Sanctuary, Animal Place, Sequoia Humane Society, Lake Shore Animal Shelter, Clayton County Humane Society, Marin Humane Society, and Assisi Animal Foundation, just to name a few.